Dynamics of Male-Male Asian Elephant Social Structure and Behaviour in Protected and Human Settlement Areas of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Researchers have long studied the male–social structure of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), but less is known about the male behaviour of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). The behaviour of male-male elephant interaction was studied in both protected and human settlement areas in Sri Lanka. Data for the present study were collected from 2013-2021. Male elephants were observed with an ethogram that consists of 12 behaviours that are found in male-male elephant interactions. There are three categories into which these interactions can be placed: (i) Behaviour related to greetings or play, (ii) Aggression-based behaviour, (iii) Collaboration behaviour. It was detected that male elephants tend to act more collaboratively with other male elephants in human settlement areas. In human settlement environments, there was a 94.73% chance that male-male elephants would move as a herd, whereas in protected areas, there was only a 5.26% possibility. In protected areas, aggression or intimacy behaviours were highly observed. A hypothesis for this could be that, in human settlement areas, cooperation, just like teamwork, can make them more efficient in their foraging and may make them feel more secure. It was also identified that in human settlement areas; adolescent male elephants will tend to encounter another adult elephant or more. Throughout the research, not a single "adolescent-only" male group was found. A reason for this feature could be that adolescent males may find mature adults to be their mentors. The average social structure of male elephants in the human-settlement range was 4.36 individuals, while in protected areas it was 2.    

KEYWORDS Asian Elephant, Ethology, Human-elephant conflict, Male elephants, Elephant behaviour